The Ship That Binds
by otherrealmwriter
Summary: Dib has spent years trying to get Tak's ship to fly again. But why? And what happens when she comes looking for it again? A short kind of mushy DATR oneshot.


**I don't own Invader Zim okay? Now I do have the DATR bug again. (Not like it ever really left, I mean out of all my fandoms it is my OTP OTP) and I am working on my other fics and I am starting on the next chapters of Taboo and Minutes to Midnight but while I am working, it makes updating kind of tricky. But since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and I am seeing a serious deficit of DATR, I figured I would come up with this quick little oneshot.**

"Are you going to the garage, AGAIN?" Gaz asked with a slight glance up from the latest version of Vampire Piggy Hunter.

"What's it to you?" Dib asked as he walked past her, turning on the light to the garage.

"You're never going to get that thing to fly again." Gaz said simply.

"Yes I will. I mean you did." Dib said not looking at his sister.

"That was a total fluke." Gaz said. "I showed you exactly what I did and it didn't work. That was probably like a get it to the gas station kind of alien thing."

"Shut up." Dib said as he shut the door to the garage. _How Dad never found this thing, I will never know._ Dib thought as he looked upon Tak's ship with amazement. He knew all too well that if his father did find it, he would try to reverse engineer it and somehow make it his own invention. He had to admit, that using the power of the Membrane Labs that he may get the ship to fly again and maybe even benefit humanity. But it would feel wrong. It would feel like someone would be violating something very close to him. This was a piece of her. A piece of the only person that cared about him. The only one who had a grip on his heart that would not let go. This was _Tak's_ ship. And it had crashed in _his_ yard. As a scientist's son he was never taught to believe in a higher power and as a paranormal investigator, he knew to keep an open mind on how the universe worked. The universe was infinite. Out of all the possibilities out there, why would a ship destroyed out beyond the moon around floating balls of magma in the void of outer space survive the fall through the atmosphere and crash on _HIS_ backyard!? There had to be a reason for it! There just had to be! Tak meant for him and only him to have it! There could be no other answer.

"She wanted me to fix it. She wanted me to find it. She wanted me to find her out there!" Dib said as he turned on the ship's computer. At this point, he didn't care if he sounded insane. This was part of a bigger project. "So tell me what you need to fix you!"

Dib collapsed in the cockpit. His rational side told him that this was hopeless. Mankind could only make it to the moon. And from what he said of Zim's after action report, the ship had exploded and Tak had fled in an escape pod to as he said, "Somewhere...out...there...". Dib acted like he was satisfied with that answer but that was one of the most heartbreaking things he had ever heard. Many would call him crazy. She's of a race you see as an enemy. She tried to destroy the human race and hand your planet over to her leaders. But there was something in Tak that he knew that there was more to her than met the eye. She was not like Zim. She was not even her leaders. She was brilliant. All she wanted was a chance to prove herself in her society and be accepted. Dib could see this and he felt close to her and that was all he wanted as well. Even though it had been nearly 5 years since that fateful day and he was now in Hi-Skool, he could still hear Tak's voice in the darkness of the night.

The clock in the garage was reading 2:34am and Dib looked up, his long scythe hair falling into his face. "I guess I need to go to bed. I got Skool tomorrow"

"You still go to that idiot filled cess-pool?" A voice said from behind him.

"Yes." Dib said sarcastically. "I only have one more year to go, then I am gone."

"Wow, your memory sure has failed you." The voice said.

Dib got up to turn to the intruder of his private sanctuary, annoyed thinking it was Gaz once again trying to insult him, only to find her here again. "TAK!" He yelled taken aback

"Dib!" She said heading over to her ship. "I see that it survived the impact much better than I thought it would. For a human, you made good progress with it."

"So, you're just here for the ship and you're gone again." Dib said. "You didn't enter with a flashy private jet that you claimed was your dad's" He said recalling the last time she came to Earth.

"Revenge is something that I don't think too much about." Tak said running her hands along the side of the ship. "Sure, my whole race pretty much screwed me over, but trying to rule those idiots won't solve anything. This universe is too big for that." She looked over to Dib. "And you think the same about your pitiful race." Dib looked away, trying not to seem too excited or even admit to himself that Tak was right about how he thought. "I was right."

"So what?" Dib asked. In the past 5 years, his front had become more and more abrasive to hide his true feelings.

"So, there was a reason I sent my ship to your backyard." Tak said. She had opened the back door and walked right on in. She was in her human disguise, only aged up to about 17 as to 12. She had let the purple hair fall slightly past her shoulders but without much more done to it, she had the same charm she did to Dib all those years ago.

"I knew there was a reason it crashed here!" Dib yelled in excitement. Tak raised an eyebrow at him as he covered his mouth.

"I had intended to come here, fix it up and find ummm..." Tak looked away not wanting to admit her feelings. "...a good traveling companion. Going from planet to planet can get rather lonely and many races are total assholes just because I am Irken. We're a feared race, but it's like you Americans. Powerful but a joke."

"How do you know so much of Earth's geopolitical system?" Dib asked, leaning back on the door.

"I had managed to hitch a ride by one of those Greys that love abducting you humans." Tak said. "But they said they were going to drop me off where they were headed. Australia's Outback desert. From there I headed to the ports and basically hid in the cargo compartments of the ships that crossed the oceans until I could find one heading to New York City."

"I see why it took you so long and how you picked up on this stuff." Dib said looking at Tak with a smile. "But that ship is going nowhere fast. Haven't gotten it to fly at all."

"Give me about 30 minutes." Tak said. "You have the computer running and you can translate Irken to English and hack into Zim's base with it, so all I need to do is fix the antimatter engines."

"How do you know what I did with it?" Dib asked.

"Ummmm... do you not delete your computer's history?" Tak said as she pressed a few buttons on the screen in the pilot's chair.

"Just fix it!" Dib said looking away.

"Fine." Tak said as a few spider legs sprouted from her PAK as she began work on her ship. Dib stared at her intently as she managed to take the flightless, semi-destroyed ship and make it back into the fantastic ship that it once was. He loved her. There was no way around it. Dib had to admit, he was hopelessly and desperately in love with her. She was right about everything she said and Dib knew he had to say it.

"I never stopped thinking about you." Dib said looking at Tak. Tak paused from her work and looked back at Dib. "I'm serious." He then walked over to Tak and moved the hair from over Tak's eye and kissed her on the cheek. "I don't care about what you did. That is not who you really are inside."

"I knew there was something special about you Dib." Tak said looking into Dib's eyes. "Always." She said as she kissed him back.

"When you get this thing fixed, I want to leave with you. See the universe." Dib said.

"I would want nothing less." Tak said as she held Dib close and kissed him deeply, running her long tongue around his and holding him close. "I love you Dib. And that is something that not every Irken is even capable of."

"I know." Dib said. "I love you too Tak. More than anything."

"Stay by my side forever." Tak said.

"Of course." Dib said.

"Now let me finish my work here. We'll be stuck on this planet forever if I don't get back to work!" Tak said as she turned back to the ship.

 **So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? This was my spur of the moment DATR fic here so yeah. I am working on the next chapter of Taboo now, but a posting date is well... I don't know... the real world needs me working. So remember to read, well you just did, and review. Ciao for now,**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


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